#21 Untold Stories: Brushes with BJJ & MMA Royalty
Have you ever met your BJJ Hero? There is a good chance JT & Joey have and also have a ridiculous story about them. It’s story time and the boys share a few of their best tales of brushes with Jiu-jitsu royalty.
Chance encounters while travelling, competing and training in Brazil and America resulting never heard before stories. They get into Seminar experiences with world champions and what really makes the greatest fighters so incredible in the gym as well as in the UFC.
Speaker 1: 0:04
Very careful a good martial artist does not become tense, but ready, essentially at this point, the fight is over. So we pretty much flow with the goal who was worthy to be trusted with the secret to limit the spot.
Speaker 2: 0:28
Ready , ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJ
Speaker 3: 0:32
Podcast. I am JT.
Speaker 2: 0:34
Hey, what’s up guys? I’m Joey man. So many stories to tell we are
Speaker 3: 0:39
Plumbing. The depths , uh, between the both of us, Joey we’ve , we’ve trained you two for a fair while, and we’ve met a lot of different famous people. And there’s a lot of stories that you can tell within Brazilian jujitsu, but also MMA . And we thought what we do today, guys, is we’d share with you some of our behind the scenes titles , um, because there’s a, there’s a mine, a gold mine of, of , uh , good stories right here. And I’m going to look to you, Joseph, to , uh , kick us off.
Speaker 2: 1:08
Okay . I think , um, before I go into one, I think that one of the cool things about jujitsu is that , uh , because it is quite a young art across the globe, there’s still the chance to connect with these kinds of like celebrities and heroes of the superstars . Yeah . Yeah . Like you can go to our TAs in San Diego and train with a bunch of whatever, like world champions, ex world champions, top-level guys like they’re just on the mat. Yeah. You can’t go practice tennis with Roger Federer. No, he can’t get on the court. You can’t go kick a soccer ball at Christiana Ronaldo . No, but golf ball can smash your face. Do you know what I mean? On a Wednesday night? Yeah. Play cards. Right. And it’s just, it’s very rare. I think given the time that we’re in right now, because it won’t be that way forever. Will it?
Speaker 3: 1:51
No, I think definitely probably 10
Speaker 2: 1:54
Years from now, these guys will be
Speaker 3: 1:56
Inaccessible, but , uh, that’s why we’re really lucky and
Speaker 2: 1:59
Accessible. We will be in. That’s why
Speaker 3: 2:01
You can like, you’d be lucky. Catch yourself lucky.
Speaker 2: 2:04
I’ll try and smash your face any Wednesday night, mate, just come down to the gym. I’ll try to smash your face. My first brush with jujitsu royalty actually occurred before I started training jujitsu. Oh, really? Joey’s journey to black belt. Yes. That episode we did five ago or whatever . I first learned about jujitsu when I was in San Diego. Right. That’s right. Yeah . Yeah. So what was the timeline of things? So I was in San Diego and I had that experience where I saw the jujitsu on the beach witnessed it. Yeah. And that was kind of in my first couple of weeks there. I ended up staying in San Diego for like three months. Awesome. Yeah. I kind of maxed out my American thing. And so anyway, I had a Brazilian girlfriend there . Awesome chick named Atlanta , like a mate. We had actually become friends in Spain. Cool. And she was sort of the reason I went there because I was just kind of cruising around the world and she’s like, oh, I’m going back to San Diego and we’ll change . She’s like, maybe you should come down to San Diego. I was in Canada and I was like, I’ll come down. So I was kind of hanging out with her and she had this Brazilian connection, you know, a group of friends and, you know, barbecues and stuff going on. So I was hanging out with them a bit. Nice. She invited me to a dinner one night. Uh, it was just a casual get together. There’s at a sushi place. Oh cool. And um, it was somewhere we were living in Pacific beach. Yeah. And , um , I was couch surfing on this couch for three months. Shout out, Jesse , thanks for putting me up for three months, we get to this dinner and she was like, oh , this is my friends , blah, blah, blah. This, this is a friend of mine. I can’t remember her name. Maybe it was Gabriela . And she had just won the pan AMS at black belt. Wow. And she’s like, oh , this is my friend Gabriela high-fat I don’t have a name wrong Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And I was like, oh, what’s that? And she’s like, oh , like it’s um, it’s like, and I was like, oh , okay . Okay. I get it. But I didn’t, I couldn’t quite understand. I had no reference point like, oh, she’s a black belt pan AMS. What like, is that a mean comp I’m like, I’ve heard of pan AMS in other sports leagues, but you know, I don’t really know if it’s much anyway, they were all quite impressed by it. So I was like, oh , I guess it’s pretty impressive. Cool. Her boyfriend was there and they’re like, oh, that’s her boyfriend. He’s also a jiu-jitsu guy. Um, he was this pretty like nuggety looking guy. And he was sitting in a booth. I remember next to another guy that kind of looks the same. Yeah . One of them had hair, one of them didn’t right. And I got introduced to them and they were like, I just remember at the time I’m like, what the are those names? One of the guy’s names was Changi and the other guy’s name was solo. Uh , there you go. And , um, and I sat with these guys at the booth and they’re like, ah , so what are you doing here? You know? And I’m like, oh , look, I’m just traveling and cruise around when I like, what about like, what about you guys? They’re like, ah, we have a digital school. And, and I was like, how did you just to school? Like, what’s, you know, just no reference point again. Right. Uh, for people listening to this, try to imagine you don’t really know anything about presume to just to accept for host Gracie , UFC . Like it’s just obscure to you. And , and one of them is like, ah , I’m like six time world champion. My brother’s seven time world champion time . And um , I’m just like, oh, how cool. Hello ? Awesome. Yeah. You like, I, I really, and , uh , could not
Speaker 3: 5:14
Really fully appreciate the fact that two of the best practitioners of all time , uh, sitting across the table from you. That’s exactly
Speaker 2: 5:23
Right. And , and that was kind of the end of the exchange. Right . You know, whatever, you know , it had some sushi had some beers and the night ended, but , um, I did reconnect with Changi many years later. Nice . And now we can talk about that down the track, but, and I, and I said that I was like, Hey man, I I’m , uh , I’m now a purple belt, but I met you way back. You probably don’t remember me. I didn’t train jiu-jitsu at the time anyways. And he was really cool. I mean, he was like, yeah, let’s catch up on news. I went back to San Diego for a little trip. Nice. Yeah. It’s just funny to look back now. Right. And think like, holy. I was hanging out with the guy who really is like, I mean, both of those guys have been hugely sort of influential in jujitsu. Changi seems to have just been this like stalwart of the spotlight. He’s been applause still, right?
Speaker 3: 6:06
Yeah. I mean, he, I mean, I think he ended up getting bronze at ADC . I mean, he’s a previous ADCC champion, absolute champion, but he got prawns at ADCC only, not last ADCC, the one before 2017. He’s still on the podium. Like still rolling .
Speaker 2: 6:23
It’d be what ? Like late he’d be late thirties. Yeah.
Speaker 3: 6:26
Probably. And I mean, he’s like, he’s been him in solo , just messing it up at masters worlds, you know ? Like you thought all those guys are like, oh yeah, I’ll just go into masters one.
Speaker 2: 6:36
There’s two big mistake mate. You’re going to get
Speaker 3: 6:41
Correct . So, I mean, I met Changi , actually. He did a seminar at our club. It’s so funny because my old coach, Dan chairman , all Brazilians know about bells , but they don’t realize it’s bells beach , it’s fricking cold and the surf gets massive and you need like a 12 mil wetsuit, like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: 7:03
Bell’s beach. Oh , Matt like surf pro
Speaker 3: 7:06
My guide. So Wheeler too . Like these guys came down to Victoria to Jalong to talk talky to surf and they’re like, oh God.
Speaker 2: 7:14
So cold . They go have a look at it and just
Speaker 3: 7:17
Be like , nah , man, we’ll just do the seminar. But our Dan would always kind of lower them in and I got to meet Shania at a seminar.
Speaker 2: 7:24
And he was, he was awesome. I mean , he was
Speaker 3: 7:26
Super lovely guy and super friendly and just, I was talking to him about kettlebell training. Cause he , uh , knew Steve Maxwell and collect the kind of connection through, through Steve and I, I knew Steve Maxwell’s through jiu-jitsu but also through kettlebell training and had done seminars with him. And so, yeah, he’s like, man,
Speaker 2: 7:44
Steve’s crazy, man. His old buddy , so strong. We’re doing all kinds of the staff
Speaker 3: 7:50
Man with Macy’s and kettlebells on the beach. That was like the fittest and strongest I ever was. Man. That was crazy. Interestingly enough, like , uh, you know, you meet different people who are celebrities within jujitsu and sometimes they’re , the experience can be really awesome. And then sometimes not so much depending on
Speaker 2: 8:08
The human, the experience, you know, not to be, I don’t know , maybe to be underwhelming. Um , look, I think the difficulty, if it’s
Speaker 3: 8:15
One of those things that, you know, we all go to seminars, right. But really you’re going there to meet the person, whether it’s a , a guy or a girl, you kind of like, you want to see him in the flesh. And then, you know, if you learn some of their jujitsu, that’s cool too. What I have found my personal experience is just essentially the techniques or whatever you learn in seminars, whatever. But your impression of the human comes across. And really, I think for me, one of the most, the least enjoyable seminars, and this is not because I don’t like the guy I love the guy , uh , was Cabrini’s we did Cabrini seminar at Alliance and uh , it went forever and the warmup was so man, it was a 45 minute warmup .
Speaker 2: 8:59
Jesus, our men , everyone was smoked after the warmup . And that’s the thing. Like I train
Speaker 3: 9:04
With Cabrini at his gym , lovely guy, humble guy, really nice introduced himself. Like I came into his gym when I met him, he was like, oh, I’m Rubin’s Charles Marcio. They’ll call me, called me. I’m like, bro, I know who you are. I’ve flown 16 hours on a plane to come see you. I know you are. But when we did the seminar, man, it was the least enjoyable experience in my life. And even Adam, our friend, Adam, Charles will attest that even the high level blackouts
Speaker 2: 9:30
Jesus, you can , we get also this warm up and can we learn some jujitsu now ? Cause he’s is an athletic freak is , and he’s super athletic. And I mean obviously his background as a ,
Speaker 3: 9:41
Like a very high level, couple of era guy. And it’s really funny cause this, this is another thing that Laquan Giles and also mini Dave, Dave Marinakis from immersion that they went and trained with Cabrini and one session he’s
Speaker 2: 9:53
Like, all right , we’re going to do the couple where a warm-up
Speaker 3: 9:56
The warm-up went for an hour when teams
Speaker 2: 9:59
Minutes . Oh. And then no one could move getting
Speaker 3: 10:01
Everyone to do like Skiva lunge, high kick lunge for you toasted, just cooked. There’s a great video of them dying and being very uncoordinated. But man, that seminar sucked in. I, I didn’t even want to look at Cabrini after
Speaker 2: 10:17
That . It’s just like , what did I say ?
Speaker 3: 10:20
150 HAIs for this.
Speaker 2: 10:22
But that was in Brazil. That was in Brazil. And so was that at the time when you were training at Alliance?
Speaker 3: 10:27
Yes, it was. Um , that year I was very lucky. So the contrast to that was I did a Braulio, a steamer seminar, and that was the first time someone from Gracie Baha had come to do a seminar at
Speaker 2: 10:38
Alliance and it was awesome. Braulio is like
Speaker 3: 10:41
The most charming guy. He’s funny as hell. He’s cracking jokes. Him and Fabio are just men loving each other up, you know, like whatever Bradley has got five-year enclosed card . He’s like, look guys, if you’ve got someone like Fabio in your close guide , you’re probably done.
Speaker 2: 10:54
But then five years , like
Speaker 3: 10:56
If you’ve got someone like Braulio pulling close guard on you, you’re probably done.
Speaker 2: 11:00
But it was leaders , great mutual respect. So much mutual
Speaker 3: 11:03
Respect, much love. And Braulio is funny as hell . And he hung around for ages and I knew some of his students I’d met him once or twice before, but he’s just treats everyone like , uh , like he just treats you like, he’s your , you’re his friend. He doesn’t even know you. So that was like awesome, like great grades. You did too great clothes , guard details, which is not a big game. It aligns . And then from, for the next two weeks, everybody’s playing closed guard and just working all the details that he showed. And uh , man , he’s, he’s such a legend. I think every time I’ve seen Braulio, he always looks like he’s having a good time. He’s always having a party.
Speaker 2: 11:36
I mean , yeah . I’ve, I’ve only seen him on the internet, but he does always look like he’s a real happy guy.
Speaker 3: 11:41
Yeah, yeah. Lovely guy. Yeah. I mean, I, I think I was very fortunate that year that like, so this was specifically 2012. So every, all the major champions were still there at the gym, but there was a bunch of MMA champions who came to the gym at that time too. But we can talk about that another time. I think within jujitsu, you see these people through the lens of flow grappling or YouTube, or you bought their instructional, but then when you get to stand next to them, you’re like, oh, you’re a human being like your flesh and blood. And you go, wow . Like how is it possible? This person can do so many gnarly, crazy, amazing things. And then you meet them, you know , you’re a human and I , the thing that I like about that is it makes it feel more tangible, more real, more possible. And you’re like, if I work my off, then maybe I can get good. Maybe not as good, but I can get good at this thing. And that’s , that’s what I’ve loved about it is them sharing their knowledge, being good people and then make it accessible. And then me getting better as a result. Yeah. It’s um,
Speaker 2: 12:42
It is an interesting thing when you realize, this person who just a person, I thought the same way we spoke about it before and we’ll go into it more detail , but training with like Rob Whittaker and being like, man, how is it that this person that I’m sharing the mats with right now is the champion of the UFC. Yeah. You know, and you’re like, it doesn’t compute in a way cause you don’t. I mean, I don’t see, you don’t see yourself at that caliber. You look at those guys, know these people are super heroes like this that, you know, and then you realize, well, I mean, they’re not, I mean, they are, they are, but then some incredible, I guess I could be too . Maybe, obviously I have no desire to be that no better . Um, but it is quite a , quite an interesting thing. Isn’t it? Because you do, you do tend to think that there’s like these huge gaps, you know? Yeah, definitely. Who have you trained with, like I know you, you did some with Jugo your card game. Yeah . You’ve had like, you’ve had a binder I’ve seen on the Instagram. You’ve had a bunch of people play that card game. Yeah . It’s interesting. Shasha playing it. Low position law . I went to,
Speaker 3: 13:41
I went to the , um, the Leandro lo and Bisha seminar and they were
Speaker 2: 13:46
Zara in Brazil. No, no, no . That was actually at immersion ,
Speaker 3: 13:49
Uh, Ringwood, which is run by leading shout out. Uh Tingey um, and all the immersion crew also mini Dave , uh, who run immersion , great gym in Victoria. And I think I had no idea where remote is. So it’s like, it’s like a 45 minutes. If you take the toll ways an hour and 15, if you don’t to get out of the city and they , they , they were staying in the city and they’d had a big night, like they came in at least 45 minutes late to the seminar and uh, lo lo and Bisha were hung over as it comes. They smelled like, you know, cruiser , double blacks. And the thing is like, they’re both lovely guys. They , um, so lo doesn’t really speak English. So he had his guy there kind of interpreting for him who was hosting them. And the funny thing about it is Bisha runs a super professional seminar and
Speaker 2: 14:49
It was great. He showed all these, it was so good. And
Speaker 3: 14:53
I mean, we’d all waited ages. They’re so apologetic, whatever. So basically Bisha showed his whole game. He’s like, this is my passing game. This is my takedown game. And here’s how I run my guard. Then we had a little break and then lo said, right , this is what I’m working on. This is how I play my guide . And he had an interpreter. The funny thing about the Andrew Lowe
Speaker 2: 15:11
He’s the chef has got some English, but low doesn’t speak any, no,
Speaker 3: 15:14
Not at all. And he’s like a mischievous child. He’s like up the back talking in Portuguese, like with his mate on his phone, like just being cantankerous, like just up the seminar while Bush is like, Hey, right. Like,
Speaker 2: 15:29
Like trying to tell him to reign it in. Wow. He was really cool to see
Speaker 3: 15:33
That dynamic. Cause they’re both super nice guys. And what actually impressed me was how technical a Boucher is as a teacher. Super impressed. Also amazed that like how not very technical, the Andrew lo is as a coach or a teacher, like does five moves, get the lapel, put your foot here, grab, grab dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And he’s like, so yeah , guys, you just do this thing. Hang on a sec. Can you unpack that a little weak ? Cause you just did like five or six things.
Speaker 2: 16:02
He’s like, no, no , no, no, look, I’ll do it again. But
Speaker 3: 16:05
Just like that. And I’m going to say, oh God, like I, I , as a black belt, there were plenty of low belts and colored belts in room who were like, what? And the black box , like, okay, we kind of get it, you know, but because they were late, they were like, look guys, we feel
Speaker 2: 16:18
Bad. You can roll with us. They looked around
Speaker 3: 16:20
The room and there was only like four black belts in the room. I was probably the biggest black belt out of all of them. And it was like a couple of lightweights and know like who wants to roll with us? And so many people like no way
Speaker 2: 16:31
Noon in one of these guys’ way. So I think
Speaker 3: 16:35
Yes , at that time would have been at least 120 kilos. Like he was thick like out of form. Yeah . Fig boy, probably 125 kilos
Speaker 2: 16:43
Festive kind of plumpness. When you’re traveling overseas, he looked big buddy. And then another thing I’d , I’d say I’m very
Speaker 3: 16:51
Much . Yes . About Patricia . He moves like a lightweight, he’s one of the best movers overseen for heavyweight guy. Couldn’t couldn’t believe his movement.
Speaker 2: 16:58
I don’t really watch him fight much. I don’t watch a lot of jujitsu to show just the way he just, he appears he’s one of those guys who appears to be very mobile. He’s so explosive. He has like a suppleness. I would
Speaker 3: 17:09
Say he’s the most dynamic heavyweight. Right ? I don’t think there’s a heavyweight who moves better than him. But then lo is like Lightspeed he’s he’s the fastest, like he
Speaker 2: 17:20
Just like zip , zip , zip. He goes everywhere. So anyway, what was so
Speaker 3: 17:24
Funny was leading was like, I’m going to beer and BOLO, the Andrew Lowe site . Right.
Speaker 2: 17:30
You’re not getting up here . And , and ,
Speaker 3: 17:32
And, and he said to me, watch leading is going to try and beer and BOLO .
Speaker 2: 17:38
That was just like his thing for the , it’s not like , I’m not going to nail, I’m going to do this as low. Doesn’t get bollard . No, like guess he’s talked about, or he’s just, he doesn’t like way that no
Speaker 3: 17:46
One can follow low . Right ? Like nails can’t BOLO low right now . It’s just like, he’s spent a good number of years fighting the Yarra brothers. Almost no one can take his back, you know , in the game , you know, let’s quantify that. So
Speaker 2: 18:02
Lee team comes out just like slap his hands . Like I’m gonna , let’s go like, like a world championship fight. And Lowe’s just like half
Speaker 3: 18:10
Asleep. Like, oh God, we shouldn’t have agreed to this.
Speaker 2: 18:14
No one wanted to roll Bush up .
Speaker 3: 18:16
I was the biggest guy in the room. So I was like, no , you know, whatever. Like, I’ll have a crack. Like, you know, I’ll keep it casual. You know, anyway, people lined up and um, men
Speaker 2: 18:26
Teach straightaway , comes out, pause , Della. He was trying to bowler and then straight away , Lowe’s like kind of laughing, like really you’re gonna do this to me. Anyway. He was like, so adamant, like reaching for the belt and want to get anyway , I was , I was concentrated.
Speaker 3: 18:39
What’s in front of me, which is the greatest guy of all time. Russia and Russia did the same way. Kind of sits down to like , um, like a step back it’s he’s kind of like half guard, whatever I had knee shield, he kind of lies on me. So he’s torso is across my body and he’s kind of got his back to me and he’s going to just kind of whatever he’s going to do, you know? But I thought,
Speaker 2: 18:59
Oh, it’s not that you have like a cross face or is he fine ? He’s he’s, he’s got his , um , armpit across my chest. So both my house , both my
Speaker 3: 19:06
Arms are free and he’s just, he’s not putting heaps of pressure on me, but he’s not that heavy. Like
Speaker 2: 19:11
He didn’t feel heavy and maybe it’s just because he was taking it light on me. And I was like, oh, whatever, I wasn’t going crazy at that Stardust. Yeah . So it’s like , everything feels kind of mystical at that stage. And then I, I kind of was like, oh , you know what? He’s
Speaker 3: 19:24
Not as heavy as he looks. And I kind of grabbed his belt and I grabbed his far side leg and I was like, you know what? I reckon I’ve got a cheeky back take from here. And he was just kind of sitting on me. He wasn’t doing much. And I was like, it. I’m going to try something. You know, nothing crazy. So I put my outside leg under his leg, kind of like for those who are, well-versed like, I mean a half guard. I took my hook off and I put it behind his knee, like a crab hook. And then I kicked out to take his back and I had his belt. I literally had my shins in back of his knees and I was riding the bull man
Speaker 2: 19:57
Took off , man. He does . Right . He’s gonna take my back form . And you just popped up off the mat and tried to run off the mat and was like holding onto his belt with my feet behind his knees, like China climb. And we just basically
Speaker 3: 20:11
Ran off into the boxing bags. I let go, he stood up and he looked at me. He’s like, man, you’re strong. And I was like, oh yeah, thanks bro. Yeah. Cool. And then just straight away, his demeanor changed, like, okay,
Speaker 2: 20:25
You’re going to get it now. I was like, and I felt it changed the game changed . He wasn’t,
Speaker 3: 20:31
He wasn’t like going casual. He’s like, you know, he probably went from like 20%, 50%, but he just went right. I’m going to crush him now.
Speaker 2: 20:38
And he just grabbed my pants and he grabbed my side . I was like , oh, no other woke in the bit . Anyway, he didn’t, he didn’t, he was quite merciful. I’ll be honest. He
Speaker 3: 20:48
Crushed the life out of me. Like
Speaker 2: 20:50
I did what I could like, but he didn’t , he didn’t submit me.
Speaker 3: 20:53
Like I D I defended myself, but uh , oh my God, the guy’s pressure when he wants to turn it on it’s it’s another dimension. You
Speaker 2: 21:02
Would have felt all of the 120 kilos. My goodness. He decided yet we’re rolling now. He just played it real low key. Cause he’s,
Speaker 3: 21:10
You know, you , you , if you’ve ever seen Bisha, he’s, he’s a monster. He was being nice to me, but he, he me up.
Speaker 2: 21:17
And then what was cool was like, we switched out and anyway. But he’s like, man, you, you know you you’re good. Thanks, man. He’s super,
Speaker 3: 21:23
Super nice. You know? And then I rolled with low and I know that we, Andrew hates worm guard and they both don’t like Keenan , they call him the Keenan , the Keenan ,
Speaker 2: 21:34
The Keenan , because I was, I wanted to ask them some quick
Speaker 3: 21:37
About like how they asked at the seminar about it. And they’re like, oh yeah. How they would speak in Portuguese. But like how you up the Keenan that’s , that’s how they refer to him. They really don’t like him. I put kind of low in warm card . Like I tied him up with the lapel and he straightaways faces like this. You gonna see you as like, eh,
Speaker 2: 21:58
Anyway, it was, it was cool. Cause I was able to kind of hold onto him for a little while. And then he’s just like, oh , he just got
Speaker 3: 22:04
Really like annoyed because I was like holding onto his leg and kind of had him tied up. But that guy, man, Leandro lo can just move so fast. He’s honestly one of the fastest movers , like, like Lightspeed, like
Speaker 2: 22:15
One minute is in front of you next minute , zip, zip, zip, like , oh ,
Speaker 3: 22:19
Next minute he’s got your back or he’s choking you or whatever. And he totally, he choked me hard. I was holding onto his leg and he’s like, whatever, I’m going to bloody bow and arrow choke. You’ve signed . So it’s like , whatever,
Speaker 2: 22:30
But he’s super cheeky. Super lovely. And he’s senior role with Shesha ? Nah , he was too busy time . Isn’t aware that like I gotta , like, I can’t go too light on this guy. No, not at all. He was too busy trying to deal with leading, trying to kill him. Was lating successful with the bowler ? I don’t know.
Speaker 3: 22:44
I don’t think so. I don’t think, I think like, you know, Leandra we’ll get easy . I’ve watched him roll mini and they had a pretty tough roll man. I mean ,
Speaker 2: 22:53
He didn’t go super hard on him, but it was a hard role . Like
Speaker 3: 22:55
When he came off like far out, like it was more competitive, so low expected. Right . Both leading and Dave Marinakis have amazing digital games and they play that bolos and bullfighters game and they’ve bloody good. Yeah . I watched lo roll with mini Dave Marinakis and it was,
Speaker 2: 23:13
It was tough role , man . Like he turned it on. He had to roll hot .
Speaker 3: 23:16
Yeah . And uh, yeah, I can’t remember if he tapped him, but he, where he, where he had to give it to him to beat him, which is really interesting. Yeah. And then I wrote him and I think
Speaker 2: 23:25
He was a bit tired and like the alcohol was just coming out of his support . It’s like, he smelled
Speaker 3: 23:30
Like across between cheap teenage boy , like Lynx deodorant. Oh and a pub. Holy. Just emitting alcohol
Speaker 2: 23:40
Out of his bores by men. And , and he, yeah, he took, it,
Speaker 3: 23:44
Took him a good couple of minutes to pass my God . He said, he’s like,
Speaker 2: 23:48
Oh, well you don’t want to forge these day .
Speaker 3: 23:50
He was like, well, like I can’t remember the exact words, but like what weight are you? And I was like, oh, Miza , passata like middle heavy. And he was like, oh yeah, good work, bro. And um , afterwards they were hanging out, just talking crap, just laughing, joking around, which is what they like. They’re so friendly. And then I was able to kind of Rouse them into playing a game of Juco
Speaker 2: 24:12
And men. So Boucher who speaks English very well. And he’s a smart guy all around and low who speaks no English
Speaker 3: 24:20
And is possibly a jujitsu savant as in very good. You to maybe not good at many other things, Boucher couldn’t get it. He didn’t understand the game. I showed him the game and I was like, oh, it’d be great if they could play off against each other playing my card game. Wouldn’t that be great for content push was like, nah , I’m not having it. Didn’t get it. And then the host and he was pretty good at it. I forgive me for forgetting his name and then lo got a straight away . So Lowe’s like, right. I do a , I do a take down or do a pass and I can do a sub or a back take . And I was like, yeah. And he’s like, all right , I can
Speaker 2: 24:53
Pull guard . I can do this. I can do that. And it’s like, yeah. And he’s like, sweet. I get this like with no English. And he was blitzing them and he was laughing at how much they sucked. And he’s like, oh , I’m killing you guys. It was mad. I was like, I was so blown away. And then they’re like, oh, where do you train? Like we should train. And like that , they’re just, they love jujitsu.
Speaker 3: 25:12
They love their lives. They also like to party
Speaker 2: 25:15
And it’s, it’s, it’s so good.
Speaker 3: 25:17
Like it’s when you have that experience, like, wow, you can appreciate why they are in another world of their own, but also that they are they’re good humans. Yeah.
Speaker 2: 25:28
Do you think , um, with the seminar thing, I just, I have this conversation with some people, people always talk about it there it’s uh , I remember it started with apparently Khabib and then we get met off , ran a seminar in Melbourne. Okay. I heard like a private kind of one, a few years ago. And it was like a surprise thing. I last minute, kebabs, during a seminar tickets were like a thousand dollars or something like that. Well , X amount of people can come and it’s sold out. Yeah . And I was talking with someone about a friend in jujitsu and they were like, oh, that’s ridiculous. You know what, what’s he going to be able to like, he’s a great fighter, but is he a great coach? Like what, what technique could be worth that kind of money and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. I was maintaining and I’ve always felt this seminars and. It’s not about the techniques. Yeah . It’s about you getting to share the room with , with this person that is like, you know, it’s an experience like it’s, it’s a very unique, very high level individual and you get to hang out with them for a bit. And maybe you learned some techniques from them and exchange a little bit. Maybe you get to role . Maybe you get to play cards. Maybe you go for a beer afterwards, whatever. But it’s like, that’s what you’re painful . That’s the you remember. Yeah. Did you kind of agree with that? I agree with
Speaker 3: 26:41
That a hundred percent. I can’t say I can’t say that I’ve come out of a seminar in God. That was worth every dollar. Like
Speaker 2: 26:49
I’m going to use that specific technique .
Speaker 3: 26:51
And that’s my game now because obviously everyone’s game is different, but you definitely get a gauge on the person you’re like, right. I had this idea in my mind now I see you. And I see you in the context of other jujitsu people. How do you treat people? What do you like? You know, and for most high-level guys, they won’t roll . You know? Like , like
Speaker 2: 27:10
It’s understandable. Right. Because then people are coming for you. Yeah. Like the way you like those guys come up and speak night . Yeah. And then you got like a few savages that are like, I’m gonna cry . I’m gonna hit my, my move on this guy. It’s like, I’m just here to teach seminar. I don’t want to fight. Come on. Like, yeah. And I think it’s just , you know, everybody’s different.
Speaker 3: 27:29
I, I, I definitely have had, you know, less than optimal experiences at seminars where I’m like, that was a rip off, that guy showed three techniques. He had us do what you do to warm up for, you know, 45 minutes running around in circles, whatever. And then it was just Q and a, like, you just took our money, bro. Like you didn’t actually, you know, you get, you didn’t get much from it. Like , uh, like I did the Nicholas Marin galley seminar in Melbourne, whatever, like respect to Nicholas’s beast . And I chambered him when we were purple belts back in the days. And he’s a phenomenal athlete, but I’m never, ever going to do a seminar
Speaker 2: 28:06
Again. You know what I noticed with Mira ? Golly. Yeah. Is highlight videos. I like watching his highlight videos. He’s our highlight videos are like 30 points . I sent him doing like six jujitsu and 70% him just looking like a stud there , like all these like close-up shots of him, like looking over the shoulder, kinda , you know, like he’s , he’s a good looking man. And it’s like watching you is like a Levi’s commercial or what other products am I buying? No . I mean, whatever. Like I , I think you can,
Speaker 3: 28:37
You’ve got to separate the art from the artist because sometimes someone’s jujitsu is amazing, but then they’re a pretty average human being. Yeah. Yeah. For yourself, Joe . I mean, is there anyone who you’ve, you’ve hung out with, you’ve obviously been introduced to a while. Was there someone who surprised you or was there someone you met who you thought, wow, you’re , you’re actually really cool or cooler than you might’ve thought? Or has it gone the other way? You know, they say don’t meet your heroes.
Speaker 2: 29:02
Yeah. I’ve done a good handful of seminars, I suppose, over the years, but not done any, you know, I’ve never been, I’ve never been like super up on or so-and-so’s coming out. I’ve got to go to that. Do that. Yeah. I did go to the last seminar I did was at Alliance, Adam Schumann in rose bay. And it was with , um, Lucas. Leprie right . I was, you know , I was like, oh , I don’t, I don’t follow jujitsu. And I , you know, everyone’s like, oh bro, Lucas leper is like the man, the man, like the man. And I’m like, oh cool. Anyways. Yeah, it was , it was super packed. It was a great night. I was his demo guy. Oh Joe, can you? And I was like, oh. He put crush on you. I didn’t . He’s like, ah , he’s like, okay guys. So we’re going to first work like this, my Delta Hiva Paso . The guy puts you in Della Haleigh . And I’m like, I don’t play Della Heba . Like I literally right . Don’t re you know what I mean? He’s like, man, put your foot here, take this. And I was a bit nervous too . Yeah . You know ? So just like, oh red . I hope I don’t drop the ball for the next three hours. Um , nice. But uh, well , I mean, look, he’s not a hero of mine. Right. He’s you know, but he’s obviously like someone who’s, you know , he’s, he’s obviously like a celebrity in a yeah . Very accomplished. Manages a fighter. Um, he, I don’t think I saw him smile once, all night . He was just like, you know, I don’t know if he was interested to be there or not. Yeah. You know, it was like, he was very friendly. It was like, Hey man, awesome. Demetrius like , Hey, good to have you here. Like, you know, can we take a photo? Yeah. Took a photo. Like, but you know, kind of like very little charisma. He’s very introverted. Yeah. He’s a very,
Speaker 3: 30:38
This like, cause I met Lucas , like I’ve done his seminar before as well. Right. Friendlier to me because he , I hadn’t met him before, but he’s so introverted. Like borderline slow, like you say , say , oh Lucas, something, something. And he’ll like,
Speaker 2: 30:54
Like , think about it. He’ll like , he’ll he’ll I really considered it . He might take 10 seconds to get
Speaker 3: 30:58
Back to you. Like , uh , what’s going on here,
Speaker 2: 31:03
Which you’ve got to respect. Right. Yeah . And that’s, and that , you know, and that’s the thing. I, I I’m , I’m being careful with my words because I don’t want to like yeah. Not trying to hang on anyone for not being like the mega star that I wanted them to be sure. But there is, there’s definitely something to be said for a, an athlete who also has a good dose of charisma and knows how to crack a joke. You know what I mean? And they can come into a room and they can go, right. This is what we’re doing. Hey man, what’s up, I’m sound so good to have you here, like, and bring that energy. And you’re like, wow, this is, you know, that three hours finishes. And you’re like, that was a sick experience experience. Yeah . As opposed to ah , yeah . Some of the techniques were like super sick. I’ll probably never be able to apply them because I’m not technical enough. Why did he teach any details on the cross face ? Cause otherwise it’s not applicable to me. Um, but, but yeah. You know, like , so that’s, that’s the thing that I think when you find someone who has that mix, it just it’s, it’s a special , uh , it’s something to be , um, it’s something to be appreciated because it is rare. Yeah.
Speaker 3: 32:03
Definitely. I agree with that. Um, our just random, funny side note to do with seminars. I did Michelle Nicoline seminar and I had actually met her once in Brazil, like two years before just in passing anyway. Totally respect her game. She’s the goats MI legend and lovely human in general. I already knew she had a boyfriend. Right. Like I knew her boyfriend was cause I was thinking of , I was, might have to fight him. He’s a really, really good guy at purple belt. And I did a seminar. She’s good friend who
Speaker 2: 32:35
I was , he grabbed Brazilian guy. Ah , he Swedish. Okay.
Speaker 3: 32:39
Uh , but he was living in Brazil for a period of time training at check Matt . And this is when you were there. So the seminar was in Melbourne. Right . But when I got to see , see her in 2012, we were like kind of friends by then. So it was fine, you know , but as I was trying to, I wasn’t chatting her up. I was just trying to talk to him before the seminar. And like in the first minute of the sentence, she said , I have a boyfriend
Speaker 2: 33:01
Straight away just letting you know. And I was like, yeah, cool man. Like, I’m just a fan. Like I am a fan you’re you’re you’re in Australia. No Brazil. You’re a base territory here. I promise I’m not gonna feel your chest . I just want to give you respect. And I appreciate you. And she wouldn’t
Speaker 3: 33:16
Roll me in seminar. And
Speaker 2: 33:18
I was like, oh , cause she rolled a couple of other people. And I was like, you know, I’m not going to do anything crazy.
Speaker 3: 33:21
I just want it to run filled again. And she’s like, nah. And I was like, okay, that’s a bit weird, whatever.
Speaker 2: 33:27
Well, like you asked and she said, nah , she said no. And I was like, okay, respect, whatever. But then after the seminar I hung
Speaker 3: 33:34
Out for awhile and she , yeah , he was just hanging out and she’s like, won’t train. I was like, okay. And she fought ,
Speaker 2: 33:41
She toe hold the out of me. Like 50 times we rode for like half an hour
Speaker 3: 33:47
And she just leg lock the out of me. Wow. That guy was uh , yeah , new purple belt at this stage and men toeholds , knee bars , boom, boom, boom, boom. I just smashing me. And I was like, wow. Okay. As long as she didn’t want to roll me. But she was just like, I don’t know
Speaker 2: 34:03
She’s being merciful . Cause she was like, what was the deal? He was strange. Like I think she just, it was like, I dunno if it was having other people around or what it was,
Speaker 3: 34:10
But she just kind of beat me up for half an hour. And then after that we were mates.
Speaker 2: 34:14
So it was cool. You know, like I said, oh, you know, like
Speaker 3: 34:17
I’m going to go back to Brazil and you know, it’d be great to train with you. And anyway, I didn’t actually get to train with her. Uh, but I got to see her at tournaments and stuff like that. And she’s always really friendly. Um, it was cool. So I really respect not only one that she just told me to get lost because it was just on her terms. And then also it wasn’t like she was afraid to roll me because this thing, I think a lot of people forget is her main training partner for a long time was Robert Drysdale . And she used to beat her up and all the tough guys at Brasa team back in the day, he used to like really like, they weren’t nice to her. Like that’s tough,
Speaker 2: 34:53
Man. She’s not a big human.
Speaker 3: 34:56
He wonder why she’s so good. Right. So I think that’s the thing that like, whether it’s it’s it’s male or female, when you train with some of these smaller humans, whether it’s like , uh , uh , Bruno Malfa Sini , who’s tiny, but so powerful. It’s so fast. Or you know, even like a guy like half a Mendez, he didn’t look that athletic. He doesn’t look that
Speaker 2: 35:14
Jack he’s so strong. The guy’s so strong.
Speaker 3: 35:18
And then you, you, you think, these guys are to some extent they are superhuman. Like what they’ve achieved is almost unbelievable, but they are actually human. And what they’ve done is possible. If you have their level of dedication, their level of application, tough mindedness, whatever. Yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 2: 35:36
It’s all of those attributes. Isn’t it combined. Yeah . That allowed them to get to where they are.
Speaker 3: 35:41
Yeah. No, it’s it’s phenomenal. And uh, I I’m very grateful. I mean, mate, there’s so many other stories we could tell. I mean, are you guys
Speaker 2: 35:49
Going to have to tune in next time for more stories of how we got crushed by people who were better at digital than we are story of every other trainings ? No , it’s, it’s a, it’s a cool thing guys . So I’d definitely encourage all of you out there. If you do get the opportunity
Speaker 3: 36:06
To meet, you know, you hear us do, do it, like pay the money because you never know when the experience might come again or never happen . Man. I
Speaker 2: 36:14
Think particularly now, like through these COVID times, people would be appreciating what it was like to be able to go to seminars and stuff. Right? Yeah,
Speaker 3: 36:22
Definitely. And uh, yeah, definitely encourage you guys to do it. And even if it comes to something like somebody you want to meet in the health and fitness realm, like a famous coach or trainer,
Speaker 2: 36:33
Definitely it’s worth be the guys that run the Bulletproof for BJJ program. You want to connect with those guys. You can find them on the mat at jungle brothers on a Friday night. Yeah. You might
Speaker 3: 36:42
Even find them a cheeky weeknight at Alliance, you know like before they blow up and get to five
Speaker 2: 36:46
Currently Mondays, Wednesdays, but who knows? It’s a bit mythical. Yeah. It’s take your chances.
Speaker 3: 36:51
Yeah. You know, you might be able to stock their Instagram find out. Alright man, I think we’ll call that a wrap right there. Awesome.
Speaker 2: 36:58
Thanks for listening guys. If you need any help from us , uh , Bulletproof of bjj.com free trial for the program, jump on board. If you do need help with the strength and mobility, our program has you covered. And if you want to follow us on Instagram to at Bulletproof of BJJ, we’re putting that stuff out every day on recovery strength, mobility, just how you can improve your BJJ lifestyle. So check this out. Thank you for supporting . Thank you, Joey. Jeez , JT, you guys , you next week . [inaudible] .